Plans in the works for former Innisfil property

By BOB BRUTON – Barrie Examiner June 9 2012

Barrie’s room to grow is slowly taking shape.

Councillors will consider a concept proposal for the former Innisfil property’s secondary plan Monday which outlines land uses for people, homes, jobs and greenspace.

Mayor Jeff Lehman says it reflects city council’s original direction to ensure job growth and residential growth happen together.

“Our desire is to see the new lands help us attract enough jobs to become more of a complete community, rather than just a bedroom community,” he said. “My sense is the concept plan strikes a good balance to do that, with employment lands along the Highway 400 corridor, and new neighbourhoods farther east and west.”

Barrie’s borders were stretched into Innisfil on Jan. 1, 2010, taking 5,664 acres of town land containing almost 200 homes and 40 farms on mostly rural and agricultural land.

This property is to be a southern gateway to the city, providing a range of housing and a mix of uses that allow residents to live, work and play in their own community.

Natural heritage features are to be maintained, forming part of an interconnected open space network that links existing neighbourhoods and encourages active transportation – walking, riding a bike, etc.

“What also struck me about the plan was the amount of green — fully a third of the new lands will be environmental protection, parks and open space,” Lehman said.

“It’s also easy to see how neighbourhoods will come together in the new lands,”?he added. “One of the great features is that all residential areas will be within a five-minute walk of a park and school site or a ‘village square’, which will be a local green space available for informal activities like pick-up sports games, walking the dog, throw a Frisbee, etc.”

The Provincial Growth Plan requires Barrie to accommodate a population of 210,000, and employ 101,000 people, by 2031.

The city is doing a strategic planning exercise to address how the population and employment growth will be accommodated.

“There is some math that determines how much of what land use we need in the new lands,” Lehman explained. “It starts with population and job targets for 2031, which are then turned into land area numbers by assuming certain densities of development.

“All of that math is contained in the city’s growth management study, but the short version is that the city will grow again, but more slowly than it has in the past.”

The concept plan sets out the first general plan for these lands, but it is just a concept at this point and additional detail will be added before the plan becomes policy.

“The pace of job and population growth will be monitored and some changes to the plans can be made periodically over the coming years if things change,” Lehman said. “However, the basic structure of roads and land uses will likely not change much once approved by council.”

If Monday’s motion is approved, city council could consider final approval on June 18.